A COUPLE have been awarded £100,000 compensation after their son was severely brain damaged at birth by a medical error.

A COUPLE have been awarded #100,000 compensation after their son was severely brain damaged at birth by a medical error. Mary Murtagh reports

IT WAS when a doctor told Lyndsay Carney that her son would never walk or talk that she fully realised how badly injured he had been during his birth.

Little Michael Tierney was left blind, with cerebral palsy and epilepsy after being starved of oxygen.

A catalogue of errors by medical staff as he was born left Michael needing round the clock care.

Liverpool Women's hospital admitted responsibility and apologised the day after the two-year-old died. Today it said it had learned important lessons from the tragedy. The family have been awarded #100,000 in compensation.

There was more heartache for the family; two days after Michael's death his carer Craig Eaton, 22, was shot dead.

He was walking home after a night out drowning his sorrows over his young charge's death - his killers have never been caught, despite a #10,000 reward.

Today, on the first anniversary of Michael's death, Lyndsay and dad Michael Tierney have spoken of their heartache for the first time.

Lyndsay said: "My son Michael was a joy for two years. He was so special.

"I looked after my baby for nine months and then I put myself, and my child, in medical hands and it all went wrong.

"If the hospital staff had done what they should have then I would have a normal and healthy little boy running around now."

A letter admitting medical negligence and an apology from Liverpool Women's hospital arrived the day of Michael's funeral.

A copy of it was buried with him. The #100,000 compensation has been given away to friends and family with a lump sum put aside for his one-year-old brother Connor.

Lyndsay said: "It was never about the money. I wanted them to apologise to my son.

"I told the hospital they should use the compensation money to retrain their midwives.

"Telling his story to the ECHO is my justice. I hope everyone who was involved in his birth reads this so they know that I have not forgotten what they did to Michael.

"Every day of Michael's life he was tormented and his little body full of pain - they did that to him.."

Lyndsay says she is haunted by the memories of Michael's birth and the opportunities missed that could have saved her child.

At first Lyndsay wasn't aware of how much danger the baby was in.

She said: "I got a glimpse of the baby, which was purple. I wasn't even told if it was a boy or a girl.

"I kept saying to the doctors 'please make my baby cry' so that I would know he was okay but I knew that something wasn't right. One of the doctors looked over his shoulder and said: 'He is alive, isn't he?'"

Baby Michael, weighing 9lbs 1oz, was immediately taken to the neonatal unit. Lyndsay's first real glimpse of him was as he lay in an incubator, with a collapsed lung, attached to tubes and monitors.

Connected to a ventilator to help him breath, his body was shaken by fits.

By then doctors knew Michael was severely brain damaged because he was not performing the most basic involuntary actions such as swallowing and blinking.

Initially Lyndsay and Michael were told their son had become trapped in the birth canal where he was starved of oxygen.

Lyndsay said: "I just wanted to know what had happened to my son and basically I was told that it was my pelvis that had strangled him."

Baby Michael was a month old before Lyndsay got to cradle him in her arms for the first time.

It was when Michael was transferred to Alder Hey hospital that Lyndsay, 26, and Michael, 40, had their son's condition explained to them.

Lyndsay said: "He said he was shocked that Michael was alive and that he would never live to be an adult.

"He said our child was like a broken toy that could never be fixed. I wanted to know if Michael would ever walk or talk but he said the brain damage was so bad that that would never happen.

"I had been holding on and hoping until then."

Dr Rosenbloom recommended the couple request a consultation with staff at Liverpool women's hospital to find out what happened.

Armed with a list of questions the couple discovered that Michael's heart had stopped for 20 minutes during the delivery.

Lyndsay said: "It was then that we found out that my son's brain damage was not my fault but theirs. I can never see my son, hold him or smell him ever again because of what they did."

The couple put the matter in the hands of solicitors.

Michael came home for the first time at seven months old after his parents had undergone medical training to care for him at their Huyton home.

Their second son Connor was born a few months before Michael's health took a turn for the worst last spring.

Michael became very tired with fighting for every breath and his parents saw that he was ready to die. Lyndsay said: "Letting him go was the hardest decision I ever had to make. We knew he was going and the doctors said there was nothing more they could do for him.

"We turned the ventilator off, he smiled and died in his Dad's arms. I just felt numb after he died. It felt like the day that I brought him into the world."

What went wrong > > >>

>What went wrong>

AFTER a normal first pregnancy Lyndsay was in labour for three days at Liverpool Women's hospital.

By the third day - Sunday, January 20, 2002 - she was exhausted and worried, as were Michael and his mother Sandra Tierney, who were with her.

Lyndsay says her midwife was rushed off her feet as she helped three other women deliver their babies.

A monitor to pick up the baby's vital signs, such as heart beat, showed foetal distress early on Sunday. The trace given by the monitor became abnormal and foetal tachycardia - a rapid heart beat - was identified by midwives. But a catalogue of errors then occurred:

* At 6.10am midwives recognised the trace was abnormal but did not fetch a doctor.

* At 6.45am a doctor failed to recognise that the trace had become abnormal and the midwives did not carefully monitor it.

* At 7am midwives should have summoned a doctor but did not. It was 8.20am before a doctor saw Lyndsay.

In those three hours Michael was starved of oxygen in the womb and became severely brain damaged.

At 8.30am an team of doctors, nurses and midwives performed an emergency procedure to deliver the baby.

Liverpool Women's hospital chief executive Louise Shepherd said: "I would reiterate on behalf of the trust our sincere and unreserved apology to Miss Carney and Mr Tierney for the loss of their son.

"The trust has admitted liability for these tragic events and made every effort to ensure that the claim made against the hospital was settled as quickly as possible so that there could be a speedy conclusion for the family.

"All the documents in this case were shared openly with Miss Carney and Mr Tierney's solicitor. In addition, Miss Carney and Mr Tierney met senior consultants in the trust in

order to discuss the circumstances surrounding Michael's birth. I would like to reassure the family that important lessons have been learned from this case and practices changed appropriately.

"Every member of staff in the hospital involved with Michael's birth was devastated by these events. The trust would again like to extend its deepest sympathies to both Miss Carney and Mr Tierney and their families."

Best friend who met a tragic death > > >>

Best friend who met a tragic death>

DEDICATED children's carer Craig Eaton was Michael's best friend for the last few months of his life.

Alder Hey hospital worker Craig, 22, would curl up in bed with the boy, make him laugh and play with him.

But Craig was shot dead on Molyneux Road, Kensington, on February 24, 2004, as he walked to his parents house in Anfield.

Lyndsay Carney said: "Craig loved Michael and Michael loved him.

He looked after each child with passion and treated them like ordinary kids, not patients.

"In the days leading up to Michael's death he was always there. He was mourning the loss of a little lad that he loved when he was killed.

"We will never forget him and we want his killers brought to justice."

Detectives were baffled as to why anyone would want to kill the popular carer and concluded that his death was due to mistaken identity.